AMELIA JEAN O’LEARY DANCE

Grounding breaking First Nations dance artist and storyteller based in Naarm/Melbounre Australia

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STAUNCH ASF (2023), Amelia Jean O’Leary. Photos by Gregory Lorenzutti

AMELIA JEAN O'LEARY (she/they/yinarr) is a proud Queer First Nations Gamilaroi Yinarr from Northen New South Wales who is currently living in Naarm (Melbourne). Her dance practice is about human and spiritual experiencing, through complexity and adversity she finds ways to tell coded and poetically rich stories. Her dances are personal and personified from her multidisciplinary skills in theatre, film and sound design. Through dance she is trying to understand this world and herself deeper. Her practice and works have relevant questioning and provocations that are resilient and inquisitive.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2021, O’Leary performed her first full-length work ‘Yinarr’ in Adelaide Fringe and at Dancehouse in 2022. She was also a part of ‘Collision’ by Jo Lloyd presented at Junction Arts Festival and ‘Garabari’ by Joel Bray at Arts House in 2022. In 2023 O’Leary created two more major new works. Her second work ‘A Certain Mumble’ presented by Darebin Arts Speakeasy in Frame. Her third 'STAUNCH ASF' presented in Melbourne Fringe performed at the Meat Market in the BLAK LODGE as part of the Deadly Fringe program. She was awarded Best Emerging Indigenous Artist at Melbourne Fringe 2023 for ‘STAUNCH ASF.’

O’Leary has choreographed for Melbourne Theatre Companies Young First Nations Program’s show in Yirramboi Festival 2023 ‘One Day.’ As well as directing and choreographing for Ngali/ Richmond Fashion show. 2024 was an exciting year for O’Leary as she was brought to Vancouver by Raven Spirit dance company to attend Matriarchs Uprising and began developing multiple works including SAD EYES and TWO GATHER. O’Leary was the movement consultant for Melbourne Theatre Company’s new work World Problems and she was nominated for a Green Room Award for STAUNCH ASF. O’Leary was commissioned to develop her new work CODED for the Queer Development Program by Performance Space in Sydney May 2024. After touring, performing and teaching as a trainee with The Australian Ballet’s Education and Out Reach Team in 2024, O’Leary is the artist-in-residence at Abbotsford Convent. In January 2025 she has already presentended ‘CODED: A NIGHT OF QUEER STORYTELLING,’ where she presented and performed in her own tripple bill, which included her three-fifteen minute new dance works, ‘CODED,’ ‘NGAMBAA’ and ‘I LOVE YOU.’

I LOVE YOU (2025), Photo by Tom Nobel